In general, procedural needles are hollow needles typically used for a wide variety of medical procedures, and in some, but not all applications, are often traditionally referred to as “hypodermic” or “spinal” needles. Traditional procedural needles share a common trait. They generally have an exit port at or near the injection end of the needle, and this port may be at the needle end, or side, or most commonly, is central to a needle bevel, which provides a sharp point and makes the needle easier to push through skin or other tissues.
In needles having an exit port on the side, or as part of a bevel, therefore, there is a rotational orientation to the needle. The exit port, and/or bevel, may be directed in any direction around a 360 degree arc—and once the tip of the needle is inserted below the skin, it become very difficult to determine in which direction the exit port and/or bevel is pointing. There may be an index tab in the hub of the needle, often engaging a tab on the needle stylet, but this slot and tab arrangement is very small, and very difficult to feel.
Most typically, needles are inserted by having the operator grasp the needle hub in a pinching action between the thumb and forefinger, and what has long been needed is a needle assembly in which a humanly tactile discernible feature or features on the needle assembly itself gives the operator the information, continuously and without needing to visually check, the position of a hidden bevel of a partially inserted needle.
These drawings are provided to assist in the understanding of the exemplary embodiments of the invention as described in more detail below and should not be construed as unduly limiting the invention. In particular, the relative spacing, positioning, sizing and dimensions of the various elements illustrated in the drawings are not drawn to scale and may have been exaggerated, reduced or otherwise modified for the purpose of improved clarity. Those of ordinary skill in the art will also appreciate that a range of alternative configurations have been omitted simply to improve the clarity and reduce the number of drawings.